How does a page receive a page one ranking for search terms that do not appear anywhere on the page?

by sq44
5 replies
  • SEO
  • |
How does a page receive a page one ranking for search terms that do not appear anywhere on the page itself?

Do a Google search for "san francisco coffee services", or "san jose coffee services", or "santa clara coffee services". Check the SERPs and you'll find that Associated Coffee's home page Welcome to Associated Services, Northern California's Office Refreshment Leader is ranking on the first page for all three.

The words "san francisco", "san jose", and "santa clara" do not appear anywhere in the visible copy on the page. The only location modifier on the page is "northern california" in the title tag. They do however appear in the keywords metatag.

I did my search from Larkspur, CA.

I have been operating under the notion that
1. to rank for any search term it had to actually appear on the page for which I wanted to rank - this includes the title tag
2. the contents of the keyword metatag in no way figured into the ranking of the page - wouldn't help - wouldn't hinder - just wasn't taken into account

So how did Associated Coffee's pages for these three terms not only show up in the SERPs for the given searches, but show up on page one?

What am I missing here?
#page #ranking #receive #search #terms
  • Profile picture of the author Mike Anthony
    simple........anchor text links and/or in some cases LSI related words
    Signature

    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[8398366].message }}
    • Profile picture of the author Mike Anthony
      looked this up for you and this is a PERFECT example of Geographical LSI. The page DOES mention the bay area which according to wikipedia

      "The region encompasses the major cities and metropolitan areas of San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose, along with smaller urban and rural areas. The Bay Area's nine counties are Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Napa, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Solano, and Sonoma"

      So Bay area IS related to those counties and cities.
      Signature

      {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[8398384].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author yukon
    Banned
    They mention the keyword (510) (Geo location) in the footer, on every single page of the site.

    I did a quick check of their backlinks, anchor-text isn't really targeting the keyword/s but the incoming backlink page titles mostly mention Geo locations (towns, state, area code, etc...) in California.




    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[8398457].message }}
    • Profile picture of the author sq44
      Thanks for the replies. It's now starting to make some sense.

      So what advice can you offer in determining whether to rely on geographical LSI vs. creating optimized pages that include a specific location in the title tag & page copy?

      In designing an optimization strategy that takes location into account how would you compare relying on geographical LSI - which feels to me somewhat vague, kind of trusting the machine - versus creating individual pages optimized for specific cities or regions?

      I guess I'm asking how do you insert a bit of targeting certainty into the process when relying on geographical LSI? How do I know the town or city I'm targeting will be included in the geographical reference I put on the page?

      For example the (510) geo location Yukon notes includes the East Bay cities of Oakland, Berkeley and such but not San Francisco, San Jose or any of the North Bay cities. How do you figure out what's being covered or targeted?

      The "Bay Area" Wikipedia reference Mike Anthony mentions makes sense - but does that mean I'm dependent on whatever the limitations of the Wikipedia geographical references are?

      Maybe another way to ask the question is - How do I best use geographical LSI?
      {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[8398554].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author yukon
    Banned
    Originally Posted by sq44 View Post

    I have been operating under the notion that
    1. to rank for any search term it had to actually appear on the page for which I wanted to rank – this includes the title tag
    The keyword doesn't have to be on the ranked page but it sure does make it a lot easier If the keyword is on the ranked page. Personally I do all the easy stuff first (on-page SEO).
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[8398552].message }}

Trending Topics